Including Transcripts With Oral History Podcasts

I think it is important to include transcripts with oral history podcasts.  Transcripts help everybody:

• Listeners
• Researchers
• Deaf users

At the Oral History Association’s annual meeting in Little Rock (see previous post), Rebecca Wright emphasized this point in the “Introduction to Oral History” workshop.  She said words to the effect:

“Given a choice between audio and a transcript, researchers will choose a transcript.  Given a choice between audio and nothing, researchers will choose nothing.”

Researchers need to scan quickly to determine if an interview has relevant information and quotes.

To make scanning easy, there are two techniques:

1. Index - which contains a timestamp and a brief description of what is being talked about.  This helps all listeners find the audio clip they are most interested in. 

2. Transcript – which contains a word-by-word copy of what is being said.  This is very useful for researchers.

So far in my project, I’ve been doing a hybrid of these two techniques.  I started by listening to the raw audio (anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours - broken down into more than one audio file.)  As I listened in Windows Media Player which displays a running timestamp, I created an index. 

Then, as I decided which parts of the interview to include in a 12 to 15 minute podcast, I found myself going back and transcribing some of the detailed conversation to make editing easier.  This was helpful because I sometimes selected audio out of sequence and needed exact words and phrases to make it sound plausible.  (For example, I frequently asked the person to expand on something they said earlier). 

I intend to upload either the index or my hybrid document with all of my podcasts.

Podcasts About Women in World War II

My class project, Soldiers Without Guns: The Patton Girls in World War II, is a series of interviews with my mother and aunts about their experiences during World War II. 

I decided to look for similar podcasts – whether done as family history or oral histories.  I found a couple of examples I’ll describe over the next few posts.

First, Women Welders in World War Two, is a podcast from a BBC Radio Show called Woman’s Hour.   The 8:05 minute podcast describes the work of Dr. Margaretta Jolly, who found letters written by women welders in Yorkshire, England, and turned the letters into a book, Dear Laughing Motorbike.  Although this podcast focuses on women in the United Kingdom, whereas my family is all in the United States, I found one point particularly interesting:

“We don’t want to exaggerate the idea that this work was, in any simple sense, liberating.  We often tend to do, now, looking back.  That’s one of the images.  Rosie the Riveter is standing for some kind of simple image of women going into the workplace or being liberated.  I realize through interviewing the women today and through reading the letters that it wasn’t in any way glamorous or romantic.  They did it, first of all, for money.  And they went into those jobs because they were called up by the Labor Exchange.”

But as one of the woman welders emphasized,

“When you were doing it, you felt that you were helping the war.”

I found similar sentiments in my interviews.  My mother and aunts recognized it was a good opportunity, especially to make money, which was important because they had grown up relatively poor.  However, they believed they were helping the war effort in their own way and were proud of it. 

Woman’s Hour: History and Science Archive lists other podcasts regarding women’s role in history.

Rural Voices Radio: Today’s Current Events are Tomorrow’s Oral History

“Rural Voices Radio: Mississippi Voices Sharing Their Stories of Place”, presented by Emily Noble, was perhaps the most moving presentation at the Mississippi Historical Society’s 2007 Conference.

“Rural Voices Radio” encourages school children to write personal stories in their own voices.  Selected stories are recorded by the students and broadcast over Mississippi’s public radio stations.  If the story isn’t selected for radio, the child receives feedback and the chance to revise the story and submit it again.

Students record their stories in a professional recording studio, frequently traveling to another town to do so.  Each child receives a CD containing their story. 

Emily Noble brought her CD player and played several stories for us.  All were personal stories of surviving Hurricane Katrina - heartbreaking and inspiring – including one child who sang the blues:  

“Hurricane Katrina swept away, all my possessions into the bay.”

Rural Voices Radio is intended to develop student’s writing and thinking skills.  But because they represent real life in Mississippi, they serve as oral histories as well. 

Visit Mississippi’s Rural Voices Radio to see photographs of the budding writers and listen to their stories.

Using iPods in Oral History

“Wade in the Water: Memory and Community in the Delta”, presented by David Cunningham at the Mississippi Historical Society’s 2007 conference, illustrates an interesting way to use iPods in the recording and playing of oral history. 

Dr. Cunningham, who teaches Sociology at Brandeis University, brought a group of students to the Mississippi Delta (supported by Delta State University) to interview local people on topics such as civil rights, music, political and economic issues.  The students spent nine days based in Cleveland, Mississippi, while branching out to Clarksdale and other towns.  In each town, they first meet with local community members to explain their project in an attempt to really engage the townspeople. 

For interviews, they clipped a small microphone to the end of their iPods and set out to interview teachers, business owners, story tellers, etc. in their own environment, like the local barbershop.  They uploaded the iPod files to a laptop, edited them in Audacity, and are in the process of creating a Web site which will also contain photographs and other artifacts.  Playing excerpts for us, I was surprised at the quality of the audio.  It sounded very good.

Ultimately, they hope the podcasts will serve as “audio walking tours” of each town, of its history and culture, told through the stories and voices of the people who live there. 

The class blog expresses the experiences and reflections of students and teachers during the class trip.  One Brandeis student wrote about the common lament of “We have no jobs.” Another post mentioned how they took time out to teach an 8th grade class about podcasting and oral history. 

This class appears to be part of a larger initiative called the iPod Experience at Brandeis University.

Mississippi Historical Society Annual Meeting

I recently attended the Mississippi Historical Society’s annual meeting (March 1-3, 2007) in Jackson Mississippi.  This year’s theme was “Telling Mississippi’s Stories.”

This was my first time to attend the meeting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Several speakers emphasized the importance of oral history.  

Charles C. Bolton: Oral histories go beyond just records and facts – they add flesh to the bones and create a more accurate picture of people and times.  Oral histories present a story from multiple points of view.  This is especially important when you are in a minority, because you don’t control the keeping of the records.    

James W. Loewan expanded on this idea even more.  His recent book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism examines towns in which blacks were not allowed after sundown.  Everyone knew the custom, although there were no official laws and thus no records.  So, the only way to shed light on this practice was through oral histories of people involved and affected. 

Daphne Chamberlain, a P.H.D. student studying children’s participation in the Jackson Civil Rights movement, said oral histories are time-consuming and difficult.  But they provide personal insight and add power to your story. 

One thing I noticed at the conference was… Although many examples were from the civil rights movement, integration, and race relations, there were very few blacks at the meeting, and only one black speaker.  I found this curious, but don’t really have an explanation for it.

Microphones – Part I

I think microphones are the most confusing part of creating podcasts.  Most references describe microphones as dynamic versus condenser and directional versus omni-directional. They describe the pickup patterns in detail, which is good.  But what is missing is how to apply this information to specific situations.

For example, for this scenario, what microphone is best? I will be conducting oral history interviews. I will most likely be in someone’s home, sitting across the kitchen table from them, so approximately 3 feet from them. The interview will probably last 1 hour to 1 ½ hours.

So far, the best choices seem to be an omni-directional mic, a cardioid mic, or lavaliere mics.

In “Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide”, Andy Kolovos of The Vermont Folklife Center  says:

“For most ethnographic and oral history interviewing a decent dynamic mono mic – whether directional or omni-directional – will work great.  They are sturdy, less expensive and, since they don’t require an external power supply, less of a potential hassle than condenser mics.” 

Andy names several microphones that should do the trick, including the Audio Technica AT804 (omni-directional), which I’ve not had a chance to try, and Sennheiser MD-46 (cardioid), which is what we use in class.

The omni-directional microphone makes sense because you can put the mic on the table between the two of you and it will pick up both voices well. It’s more forgiving of placement, and less sensitive to handling noise and “plosives.” (That’s how I did interviews before when I was recording with a cassette recorder and an external RadioShack mic.)   The disadvantage is that you can pick up other noises in the room – the humming of appliances (most of my interviews seem to take place at the kitchen table), clocks, and other people if they come into the room.  Some of this is okay because it lends authenticity to the interview, but too much can be distracting and make it hard to hear both people, especially if one has a soft voice.

The cardioid mic, like the Sennheiser MD-46, doesn’t make as much sense to me.  Although it cuts down on background noise, based on my experience in class, it must be held two or three inches from the person’s mouth.  That seems impractical and awkward for an hour-long interview.    

Lavaliere mics seem to be the other common choice.  I tried one out in class last week.  It was quite loud (or “bright” as the instructor said) and seemed to pick up a lot of extraneous noise.  I don’t know as much about them, but unless they control the background noise, I’m not sure I see the advantage.  And there seems to be debate as to whether the interviewee forgets it’s there or, instead, “plays” with it throughout the interview.

I have a ways to go before I figure this out and make a decision.

“The Dust Bowl” – “Leaving South Dakota”

Here is an example from “The Dust Bowl” exhibit showing a 1930s FSA photo with a 1970s follow-up.  (See my earlier post.) 

The following photo called “Leaving South Dakota for a new start in the Pacific Northwest” was taken by Arthur Rothstein on July 18, 1936.

The following photo was taken in July 1979 by Bill Ganzel.

The woman on the left in both pictures is Marie Braught Johnson.  She tells her story:

“My dad used to walk the floor when those dust storms were blowing and say, ‘There’s a lot of real estate exchanging hands today.’ The year before we left, my dad had a corn crop going pretty good. The grasshoppers hit, and dad went to town and bought corn knives for all us kids. He figured if we’d get that corn chopped down and piled up for fodder, the grasshoppers would leave it alone. [Crying.] Well, they didn’t. We worked, butter we couldn’t keep ahead of them. They ate it right in the shock. They ate every bit of it. I don’t even like to think about those days. We had friends who had come out to Oregon the year before, and they’d write back what a great country it was. There was grass up to the cow’s belly, and there was fruit trees for the picking. And there was work in the fruit orchards. We had nothing, came with nothing.

“We go back to South Dakota every once in a while to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. No way! No way! I just get that feeling every time I go back, like it used to be. I know it’s not quite that bad any more, but … no way. I tell Vern and Flora all the time they should have stayed out here.”

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

This example was taken from the “The Dust Bowl” exhibit on Texas Humanities Web site at:

 http://www.humanities-interactive.org/texas/dustbowl/

“The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit – a great idea to copy

I went to see “The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit (see earlier post) and really enjoyed it.  It’s fairly small, but effective.

The exhibit is based upon photographs taken by Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, and others when they worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s.  Then, in the 1970s, Bill Ganzel, a photographer from Nebraska, saw the photos and wondered what became of the people in them.  He asked himself, “Did they go to California?”  “Did they prosper?”  “Did they return?”  So he went in search of the people and some answers. 

As he found the individuals, now forty years older with a lot of stories, he photographed them again (sometimes in the same locations) and interviewed them.

That’s how the exhibit is layed out.  First, there is the photo from the 1930s.  Then a photo from the 1970s.  Then an excerpt from the interview.  There are about 14 of these groupings.   (In my next post, I will show an example.)

I loved seeing the “after” pictures and reading the stories.  So often, as I’ve looked at similar photographs, I’ve wondered what happened to the people.  

This is an idea that can be copied in many forms of public history – whether it’s more exhibits of FSA photos like this one – or community history where someone follows up on a local news story, school, church, or sports team from the early 1900s - or family history. 

There are so many stories to learn from.  I just hope that the complete collection of Mr. Ganzel’s oral histories have been captured in an archives somewhere.  

Soldiers Without Guns – Women in WW II class project

I’ve decided on my “podcast” project for this semester.  I will be creating a series of oral histories about Women in World War II as told through the eyes of one family – the Patton girls.

Mary worked for the Army Air Force in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington D.C.  Ruth, a real “Rosie the Riveter” (or maybe ”Winnie the Welder”) worked for Fisher Aircraft in Memphis.  Two other sisters were also involved in the military.  The oldest sister, Lorene, married and started a family.

Their experiences mirrored the experiences of many women during WWII - traveling all over the country, exploring new opportunities they couldn’t have imagined while growing up in a sharecropping family in the rural South.  They also experienced the harsh realities of war, as boyfriends, husbands, and friends went overseas, some to not come back.  And they experienced the day-to-day impacts of war, including rationing and food shortages.

Their stories reflect the stories of many women who responded to the patriotic appeal to support the war. 

Along the way, I will be posting about my progress – collecting background information, preparing for the interviews, and determining the best way to produce and save the interview audio files.

I will also be looking at the fundamental question – How do you make oral histories available to a wider audience through the Internet, and, at the same time, protect the privacy and security of those willing to share their stories?

Oral History Association – Highlights – Audio

I checked out one of Vermont Folklife Center’s audio guides that was recommended during the “Introduction to Oral History Interviewing” workshop.  

The Vermont Folklife audio guide – Field Recording In the Digital Age — recommends the Marantz PMD 660  audio recorder because it can create WAV files (the recommended file type for archiving oral histories) and, in their opinion, is the best value for the money.  The audio guide contains links to a couple of reviews of the Marantz recorder.

Here is a Family Oral History blog about recorders  which links to a New York Times article comparing the Marantz MPD 660, the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 and the Roland Edirol R-09.  

The vendor at the conference recommended the Marantz PMD 660 over the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96.